Tuesday, March 17, 2015

My Dollar Store Wedding

Hi. My name is Crystal. I am 36 years old. I have two incredible little boys who make my heart swell. I have two dogs and one big black cat. I love running, taking pictures, healthy living, and writing. I should also mention that I live with my partner, FOB (Father of Babies), and until recently we have been living in sin. In just over four months we are (yes, FINALLY) getting married!

Jason and I have been together for 5 years. We have set a wedding date for July 25Th, 2015. I am not into numbers but the number five seems to be playing its part in all of this!I am going to look at that as good luck.

Now it is time to plan a wedding! I am excited, ecstatic, and eager. Seeing as though we got engaged on Valentines Day and set a wedding date for July, I do not have a lot of time to prepare for this. Let's also talk about the fact that we have already created an amazing family which we provide for. This means our wedding is going to have to be a "Dollar Store Wedding". Alright, so maybe not quite that cheap...yet we are keeping it on a budget.

I wanted to have an intimate and romantic wedding. Our initial plan was to get married at one of our favorite local beaches. We thought just us, our boys, parents, along with the two people we chose to stand up for us. We then thought the next day we would have a party/picnic at a state park where we could invite our friends and family to celebrate with. This would be easy! I was wrong.

In trying to put this together a few things made it obvious that this plan was not going to work. First off if we did our vows at a beach where there was no pavilion and it rained, that could put a damper on things...literally! Second, once I started calling around for State Parks I was not left with many options. Many of the parks were already booked for events through the summer. I was left with one option and I disliked the fact that it wouldn't be a choice. This is our wedding and no matter how big or small it will be, we still deserve to have it the way we want it.

Then the brain storming began. I started thinking maybe we could rent a barn. It would be a nice rustic wedding where we could have our ceremony and a gathering. Turns out that is rather popular here in Vermont, along with the fact it is far from budget friendly. There are a few beautiful barns and they come with a big price tag.

Crossing that off the list another idea came to me: A Boat! Here in Vermont we have The Spirit Of Ethan Allen where they do cruises on Lake Champlain. After several emails back and forth to the coordinator, a conversation with my fiancee, and a squealing four year old boy who thought this was a great idea,it was decided: we would be getting married on a boat on July 25th, 2015!

Of coarse this changed things a bit since it adds up to be more than we originally were going to pay. Jay and I both loved the idea and to make it work we are doing a few things to keep cost down.

1- We are keeping invite list to immediate family and close friends. I realize some people will get offended somewhere down the line...doesn't that always happen?! I feel like this is almost unavoidable.

2- We decided to not do a sit down dinner and reception. We are taking our guests out on an hour and a half cruise and there will be an appetizer. We wanted elegant and romantic for our vows. We never wanted the reception to go along with it.

3- There will be no wedding cake. I can't see spending hundreds of dollars on a cake that might not get eaten.

4- I am not ordering flowers but will attempt to grow my own Wildflowers (Thank You to my dear friend Emilie for this suggestion). I ordered seeds from The Vermont Wildflower Farm and will try growing some of my own flowers to have at the tables for our wedding. If that falls through for some reason (you can't guarantee how nature will work) the wedding coordinator for the ship suggested grabbing a couple bouquets at Costco or Price Chopper to divide up for decoration. Either way I can still have flowers without breaking the bank.

Planning our ceremony has been fun and that is how this should be. This is our day. A new chapter; blank pages in our book waiting to be filled with stories of love, laughter and family. I don't need a big wedding to commemorate our love. All I need is him, me and the family we created.

No matter what, this will be a memorable "Dollar Store Wedding"!

Was planning your wedding stressful or fun? Is there anything you would have done different?

Congratulations, Crystal! Lots of wonderful ideas here. We too kept our guest list really small, which allowed us to have the kind of wedding we wanted. I love that you are going to grow your own wildflowers. I was very into bookbinding at the time of our wedding, so a bunch of artist friends each created a flower-themed book on a stem for me and I gathered the books into a "bookquet". Way better than a crazy expensive bouquet from a florist. If that hadn't worked out, I would have bought a bouquet from Costco - they have really nice flowers. But I hope your wildflowers do well, as I think they will be gorgeous and much more personal.

Thank you Kara! I really hope the wild flower project works out. I chose a seed mix with Blue's & golds. I was going for bright! I will keep you posted! We are doing more for this wedding than we planned but yes, keeping it small allows us to indulge in certain areas.

Congratulations, Crystal! My wedding was at the justice of the peace, and we only invited my husband's immediate family. But they invited a bunch of other people! Turned out being more than I planned for at our little reception (on the patio of our house) but we made do and had fun. I hope yours goes just as well!

About Me

I am the mother of two toddler boys and the wife of their hard working daddy. I am a SAHM who works part time as a Veterinary Technician. I am addicted to running and believe in the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. I enjoy taking pictures, writing, being outside, and spending time with my family. I feel everything happens for a reason. My moto is "Always believe you can". Here in my blog you will find humor and honesty as I write about life with two toddler boys, running, health, and the roller coaster ride of parenting.

“Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me.”~ Carl Sandburg